Conventionally, a reduction in power consumption is sought in display devices such as liquid crystal display devices. Hence, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-312253 discloses a drive method for a display device, in which after a scanning period (also referred to as a charging period) T1 during which screen refresh is performed by scanning the gate lines of a liquid crystal display device, a pause period T2 during which the refresh is paused by placing all of the gate lines in a non-scanning state is provided. During the pause period T2, a gate driver is not provided with a clock signal and the like. Hence, since the overall drive frequency of the gate lines is reduced, a reduction in power consumption can be achieved. Drive that is performed by providing a pause period after a charging period, like the drive method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-312253, is called, for example, “low frequency drive”. Such low frequency drive is ideal for still image display.
Meanwhile, in recent years, a thin film transistor using an oxide semiconductor as a channel layer (hereinafter, referred to as an “oxide TFT”) has been receiving attention. The oxide TFT has very low off-leakage current (which refers to a current flowing during an off state), compared to a thin film transistor using amorphous silicon, etc., as a channel layer (hereinafter, referred to as a “silicon-based TFT”). Hence, in a display device using oxide TFTs as elements in a display panel, voltages written into pixel capacitances can be held for a relatively long time. Therefore, the above-described low frequency drive is adopted particularly in a display device thus using oxide TFTs as elements in a display panel. Note, however, that low frequency drive may also be adopted in a display device using silicon-based TFTs as elements in a display panel.